The Slap (16 page)

And that stupid cunt of a kid. I could fucking kill
him
.

‘I’ll put the dishes away. Go say hello to Rocco.’

His son was in his room, on PlayStation. Harry sat cross-legged next to him on the floor.

‘Want to play?’

‘Sure.’ He leaned over and hugged Rocco. ‘How was school?’

‘Same.’

‘What did you do?’

‘We watched a video.’

‘What kind of video?’

‘On Eskimos but they called them another name.’

‘Was it good?’

‘It was okay. A bit boring.’ Rocco was setting up another game and his eyes were fixed on the television screen. ‘It looked really really cold. There was this family and they had to live in an ice house under the ground for months and months and ages and all they had to eat was seal blubber. It looked gross.’

‘Did they have PlayStation?’

Rocco glanced at his father and then grinned. ‘Nah, but they have the internet. How amazing is that?’

As he played the computer game with his son, both their backs resting against Rocco’s single bed, as he chuckled over the boy’s competitive streak, Harry felt his headache fade. He didn’t feel like a drink, a pill, even a smoke. By dinner time he was ravenous. Sandi had cooked steaks and served them with mashed potato and the simplicity and heartiness of the meal was gratifying. As she washed up, he slipped the music box into the bathroom cabinet, next to her toothbrush. He showered, jumped into bed naked and waited. He heard her squeal of delight from the ensuite bathroom. She jumped into bed and straddled him.

‘I love you.’ She was holding the music box, opening and shutting the lid, the tinny oriental music kept starting and stopping. He unhooked her bra and drew circles around her left nipple. Sandi was still playing with her gift, but with her right hand she reached back and softly cupped his balls. She placed the music box on the windowsill and she moved down his body, kissing his chest, licking his belly, teasing him. Her lips brushed his cock and she had him in her mouth. He closed his eyes, and tried to think of nothing but what his wife was doing to him. But suddenly he returned to the moment earlier in the day when Kelly had aroused him in her kitchen. He opened his eyes and raised his head to look at his wife. He tried to pull her up.

‘No,’ Sandi whispered. ‘I want you to come in my mouth. I want you to fuck my mouth.’

‘Are you sure?’

The pornographic words excited him.

‘Fuck my mouth,’ she urged and took his cock once more inside her. He closed his eyes again and this time he thrust his body into her mouth. ‘That’s it, honey, that’s beautiful.’ Silently, not wishing to offend her, he mouthed words to Kelly. Suck me, bitch. Come on, bitch, suck me off. He lifted himself on the bedhead, got onto his knees. He continued fucking his wife in the mouth. He could see her gagging but when he stopped his thrusting she clutched his arse and pushed him deep into her. He blew his cheeks out, stifled his shout and came with savage force. Sandi refused to release him. He spasmed and fell against the bedhead. He didn’t look at Sandi as she went to the bathroom. He heard the tap run and he knew she would be cleaning her teeth again. He smiled sheepishly at her when she returned to bed. She picked up her gift again and lay in bed looking at it. He rolled over and spooned her into his body.

‘That couldn’t have been much fun for you.’

She was examining the music box.

‘I enjoy making love to you. You don’t have to thank me. You’re my husband.’

‘My cock thanks you.’

She was still opening and shutting the music box. He tightened his arms around her.

‘Tell me about your day.’

He stroked her hair as he told her about his warning to Con, told her about Sanjiv breaking his balls, the loan to Van. He told her about the car he started work on in Hawthorn, a late-sixties Valiant that the owner wanted to restore back to its original condition. Sandi listened till he finished.

‘I want to get the girls around on Saturday, look through some DVDs. Do you want to ask Van?’

He murmured an assent. He was falling asleep.

‘And ask Hector. We haven’t seen Aish and Hector for ages.’

He froze, waiting. They hadn’t seen his cousin since the barbecue. But Sandi seemed relaxed, unconcerned. He hugged her close to him.

‘I’ll call them.’

 

The lie seemed to work. Sandi came into Moorabbin with him on the Wednesday and she was cheerful, laughing and joking with the customers and the staff. Harry watched the appreciative glances the Indian boys threw at her and he was pleased. Seeing her happy, calm, he relished the lie and became seduced with it himself. There was nothing that anyone could do to them. They would be fine—they were protected. Delighted with the return of normality he phoned Kelly and cancelled a dinner he had promised her. She was, as always, unperturbed.

‘Cool. So when will I see you?’

‘Not sure.’

‘Call me when you’re lonely.’

‘I call you when I’m horny.’ He was excited by her giggling on the phone.

‘I hear you’ve got Van coming around on Saturday.’

He was pissed off that she knew. But he was not surprised. Van was the only other person who knew about their affair. He knew the Vietnamese cocksucker would never say a thing to Sandi but he hated that there was a witness to his infidelity. He wished that Kelly was a pure whore, that the transactions were only financial, uncomplicated. He was learning a lesson. Once it was over he’d not repeat the same mistake. He’d find a beautiful hooker, see her once a fortnight and pay his way. Christ, it would probably work out cheaper.

Kelly judged his silence correctly. ‘You can trust Van.’

You can only trust family. Period. And even that can be a risk.

‘Sure, I know.’

He rang his cousin straight after.

‘
Yia sou
, Ecttora, it’s your cousin.’

‘How are you going, matey? How’s Sandi, how’s the kid?’

Fine, fucking fine, do we always have to go through this bullshit?

‘All good. Everyone’s good. How’s Aish, and Adam and Lissie?’

‘No complaints.’

Harry realised he felt self-conscious speaking to Hector. He knew his cousin supported him but he could not forget the clenched, disapproving face of that Indian bitch that night of the barbecue. She should be ashamed of herself. She wasn’t a fucking witless Aussie, she was Indian, a wog. She should know about family.

‘We’re having our mate over on Saturday arvo, he’s got a heap of new DVDs. Why don’t you, Aish and the kids come over?’

Harry registered the moment of hesitation.

‘Sure, Adam would love to see Rocco. But Aish is working at the Clinic this Saturday. I’ll bring the kids.’

‘No worries, we’ll catch up with her soon.’

Harry waited for his cousin to switch off the mobile then he banged his phone hard on the desk. He lit a cigarette and walked out to the yard. The guys were busy working and paid him no attention. Harry walked to the end of the garage, looked up and down at the unrelenting drone and rush of the highway. He knew exactly what he was dreading, telling Sandi, telling Sandi that Aisha wasn’t coming over.

But his lie had done its job. When he told Sandi that evening she just nodded.

‘That girl works too hard.’

He kissed his wife on her bare shoulder.

 

Saturday morning came around and the sky was clear and the weather mild. Sandi had risen early to go to the market and spent the morning preparing salads. Harry had a bong after his swim and then sprawled on the couch watching music videos. Rocco joined him and they silently watched the monkeys going through their motions on the television. All the black girls acted like sluts and he wondered momentarily whether it was a good thing for his son to watch these baby whores rubbing their arses and tits. But before he could say anything Rocco got up.

‘This is boring.’

Harry held out the remote for him. ‘You can change it if you like.’

‘Nup,’ responded his son. ‘I’m going for a swim in the pool.’

‘Good. I should do the same.’ But the dope had made him lethargic and he dropped the remote and kept watching the screen.

‘What do you think of her?’ he called out to his son. A teenage black girl dressed in a yellow tank top and a denim miniskirt was circling around a fat rapper who was sprouting some bullshit about guns and bitches and crack. Harry liked hip-hop but he thought this particular song ridiculous and ugly. There was no tune, there wasn’t even a proper rhythm. God, it was awful. Rocco stood in front of the television and watched the girl who was now miming an orgasm and rubbing her hands up and down her thighs.

He turned to his dad. ‘It’s okay.’

‘You like this?’

‘Nah. But it’s okay.’

‘What do you think of her?’

Rocco was confused. ‘What d’you mean?’

‘Do you think she’s sexy?’

‘Shut up, Dad.’ Rocco’s disgust was obvious.

Harry cackled and muted the volume. ‘One day you’ll understand, Rocco baby. There’s no escape from the evil clutches of women.’ He pointed to the screen. ‘She’s gorgeous but she’s cheap. Cheap women are never any good.’ Except for one thing and we’ll talk about that in the future.

Rocco watched the model who was now gyrating away in silence. Bored, he turned away. ‘They’re all hos,’ he said to his father as he headed to his room to change. ‘Black chicks are all hos. Everyone knows that.’

 

Van arrived at noon on the dot. He parked in the driveway and yelled up to Harry to open the garage. Harry, who had just fired up the barbecue, leaned over the balcony and grinned.

‘Why don’t you ring the doorbell, you crazy Chink bastard? That’s what civilised people do.’

Van grinned back. ‘Go screw yourself, you hairy butt-ugly wog dog. But before you do, open the fucking garage.’

He had brought along five large albums of DVDs and Harry helped him carry them up to the living room. Sandi wiped her hands and kissed Van. He smiled at her.

‘You’re a beauty, Miss Sandi. Why don’t you leave this mad wog bastard and come live with me?’

‘And what’s Jia going to say about that?’

‘Sandi, darling, you come live with me, I’ll get rid of Jia today. I promise.’

Rocco emerged from his bedroom and he shook Van’s hand. Van grinned and opened one of the albums, took out three DVDs from a sleeve, and handed them to the boy.

‘You like Adam Sandler, don’t you? I’ve got his new one.’

‘Cool. Can I put one on?’ The boy looked expectantly at his mother.

‘Sure. But you turn it off when the others arrive. Promise?’

‘Promise.’ With a whoop the boy dived for the DVD player. He turned around.

‘Thanks, Uncle Van.’

Within the hour the guests had all arrived. Alex had immediately walked over to the food and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing computer games with Rocco. He had made no effort with his clothes: he was dressed in black track-pants and an Olympiakos T-shirt with a hole under his left armpit. The women paid him no attention at all. Most of them were married, anyway, but Tina was still single and Annalise divorced. But Alex seemed oblivious to the women there. Hector, however, certainly made an impression. Harry felt a smug pride at the attention his cousin received that afternoon. They were a good-looking family, no fucking doubt about it. Here they were sliding towards middle-age and they still turned the chickadees’ heads. As if a deliberate contrast to Alex, Hector was wearing a pressed short-sleeve shirt that fitted snugly across his chest and torso. His cotton shorts were conservative and expensive. After kissing and greeting his cousin at the door, Harry had whispered in his ear, You look so good I could fuck you. Now, outside on the verandah, turning the sausages on the barbecue, he looked through the glass doors of the living room and watched his cousin talking to Annalise on the couch. The woman was staring at Hector with open admiration. Harry grinned. He liked Annalise. She talked too much, but she was generous, friendly and had certainly not deserved that loser of a husband. Maybe she and Hector could get together and he could divorce that uptight bitch of a wife. He heard the squeals of delight, the splashing and laughter from Rocco, Adam and Melissa who were diving and playing in the pool and he felt ashamed. She’s the kids’ mother, and that’s that.

He called out to them. ‘Food is on!’

‘Ten more minutes, Dad.’

‘Out. Now.’ His tone softened. ‘If you get out now maybe we’ll take you guys out to the beach this arvo, what do you reckon?’

‘Fooking A!’

He pointed the skewer warningly at his son. ‘Watch your mouth.’ He turned the sausages one last time. ‘Come and get it!’

 

Van sold a shitload of DVDs that afternoon. He had boxed sets of all the hit TV shows and all the latest movies, including the new Tom Cruise that hadn’t even opened in Australia yet. Harry sat back on the couch and watched the women search through the album sleeves. Sandi bought a few romantic comedies, the new season of
Lost
and the complete set of
Sex and the City
. She also paid for a few action movies for him. Alex was only interested in the Hong Kong martial arts selection and he and Van got into an animated discussion about the genre.

‘This is the boss, man.’ Van was excited and pulled out a DVD with a lurid image of a Chinese girl in a bikini kneeling before a leather-geared man in sunglasses holding a rifle to her head. ‘This shit is wild.’

‘I’ll take it.’

Sandi had looked across at him, questioningly. ‘Do you want it, honey?’

Harry shook his head. Some of that chink stuff was alright, but it was all the same. He’d seen enough of it. His cousin was politely sifting through the albums but had not yet made a choice.

‘Come on, Ecttora, seen anything you like yet?’